British Cuisine
Food Preparation & Nutrition: AQA GCSE, topic 5.2.1
British Cuisine
Definition of cuisine: ‘a style characteristic of a particular country or region where the cuisine has developed historically using distinctive ingredients, specific preparation and cooking methods or equipment, and presentation or serving techniques’.
UK culinary traditions
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner are the three standard meals of the day.
- Baking, grilling, roasting, stewing, frying and boiling are all common cooking techniques.
- Electric/gas ovens are used to bake or roast foods; pans are used to cook foods on stoves.
Traditional ingredients
- Fruit - apples, blueberries, strawberries and rhubarb.
- Dairy - milk, cheese, yoghurt and butter.
- Eggs - chicken eggs.
- Vegetables - broccoli, peas and carrots.
- Fish - mackerel, salmon and cod.
- Meat - pork, beef and lamb.
Sauces and vegetables
- Traditionally, main dishes incorporate meat/fish, potatoes and vegetables.
- Forks, knives and spoons are used.
- Hot meats are usually accompanied by a sauce (e.g. gravy).
- Hot desserts are often accompanied by a wet sauce, like chocolate ice cream, vanilla custard or double cream.
- Lots of modern dishes try to do 'fusion' between British and foreign cultures. Examples of this would be:
- Chorizo pork sausage with garlic mashed potato (bangers and mash).
- Croissant bread and butter pudding (traditional bread and butter pudding).
Classic Dishes by Country
Each UK country has staple dishes. Here are some examples:
England
- Cottage pie (mashed potato on top of minced beef).
- Fish and chips.
- Toad in the Hole (sausages in Yorkshire pudding batter).
- Steak and kidney pie.
- Bread and butter pudding (buttered bread in sugar, eggs and milk).
- Fruit crumble (crumbly biscuit or oat on top of stewed fruit).
- Bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potato).
Northern Ireland
- Ulster fry (fried breakfast).
- Pastie (ground pork or beef, potatoes, onions, and different seasonings).
- Irish stew (meat, potato, root veg and onion casserole).
- Wheaten bread (brown soda bread).
- Fifteens (cake containing digestive biscuits, marshmallows, coconut and cherries)
- Crubeens (battered fried pigs' feet).
Wales
- Cawl (traditional soup, containing Welsh lamb, leeks and potatoes).
- Welsh cakes (flat cakes containing raisins).
- Cowny muscles.
- Bara Brith (speckled bread, made with self raising flour, tea, dried fruit and mixed spices).
- Laverbread (seaweed paste).
- Bara brith (fruit cake).
- Welsh rarebit (toasted bread in cheese sauce).
Scotland
- Bannocks/oatcakes (savoury biscuit made from barley and oat flour).
- Haggis (savoury pudding made with lamb/beef, onion, oatmeal etc.)
- Scotch broth (red meat-based soup).
- Colcannon (soup/stew dish from Western Scotland. Made from boiled cabbage, carrots, turnip and potatoes).
- Shortbread (sugar, flour and butter-based biscuit).
- Neeps and tatties (oily, mashed swede and potatoes).
Test yourself on British Cuisine
Which of the following is NOT a traditional fruit ingredient in the UK?
Which of the following are traditional ingredients in UK cuisine?
Definition of Cuisine
Which UK country is famous for its shortbread?
Which UK country is famous for its steak and kidney pie?